New York Stock Exchange -- of IntercontinentalExchange Group (NYSE: ICE) -- member firms that conduct business with the public reported a fourth-quarter 2014 after-tax profit of approximately $2.8 billion and revenues of approximately $39 billion, compared with a $1.9 billion after-tax profit on revenues of about $38.5 billion in the third-quarter of 2014.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, today announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $28.5 billion for the month of January 2015, the industry’s highest-ever January total and an increase of 8.7 percent from January 2014 when sales were $26.3 billion. Global sales from January 2015 were 2 percent lower than the December 2014 total of $29.1 billion, reflecting normal... (continue reading...)

Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users had a record fourth quarter of 2014 with an increase of 29.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013 to reach 367.5 million units, according to Gartner, Inc. Samsung lost the No. 1 spot to Apple in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2014 (see Table 1). Samsung had been in the top spot since 2011.